The Financial Survival Network is dedicated to helping you build your financial fortress so that you can survive and thrive in the new economy. It's all about what's next!

Our favorite whipping boy Little Brother aka Nanny Bloomberg, formally known as Michael Bloomberg, is at it once again. Nanny Bloomberg wants to ban sugary drinks that are sold in containers larger than 16 ounces. As usual he knows better than you, and he wants you to retain your boyish or girlish figure. But don't be too upset, you can still get that 1,000 calorie milk shake from Mickey D's and as of yet refills don't seem to be on his radar. These out of control, wannabe dictators must stay up nights thinking up these looney ideas.

There's obviously no end in sight. So drink up, have a supersized 32 ounce Coke, compliments of the Financial Survival Network and wave hello to Little Brother as he watches you consume that life-threatening beverage on one of the many thousands of surveillance cameras around the Apple. The Eye-in-the-Sky is watching you. So behave yourself and obey! Or else you'll really be in trouble.

Francis Cianfroccia is a CEO of an internet security corporation, an industry that's becoming more and more center stage. But when it comes to financial security and survival, he believes the US is using the declining living standards of the middle class to bolster the retirement/baby boomer generation. By sucking up all the excess capital in the markets, the US government is making it more and more difficult for people to invest in businesses and get real returns on their capital. Propping up the big zombie banks is not doing anything to improve the economy or to fuel economic growth. Francis and I both agreed that in the final analysis, these banks are not too-big-to-fail, and the government will have no choice but to let them fail in as orderly a manner as possible. The costs of keeping them on life support are increasing by the day, with absolutely no return. The financial wake-up call is coming, it's just a matter of when.

Val Hughes and the effervescent Mo Mentum return from a lengthy Memorial Day Weekend. Evidently they didn't get their fill of adult beverages, and they're back for more. While they are veteran Wall Street Experts, they're the first ones to agree they don't know everything about the economy. So if you've still got some fiat dollars left that you don't want to convert into real money, they've got some great ideas. But always remember, take all government statistics with a grain of salt, especially those that emanate from the Fed. Of course always remember, you need to do your own due diligence when evaluating any investment opportunity, precious metals, stocks, or hog futures.

Wayne A. Root is a long-term, dyed in the wool libertarian who understands what it takes (or took) to succeed in America: hard work, the courage to take a risk, and the desire to make it. Unfortunately, confiscatory taxes, burdensome regulation and a built-in hostility towards entrepreneurs is making it much more difficult today. Wayne's got some answers in the book he wrote, The Conscience of a Libertarian: Empowering the Citizen Revolution with God, Guns, Gold & Tax Cuts. Wayne refers to himself as a Capitalist Evangelist, which isn't such a bad thing. After all, he could be a wealth redistributionist, also known as a progressive.

Debt elimination and repudiation is the only way the existing world's economic disaster can end. The world's central banks will not be able to print enough currency units to keep all of the losing enterprises afloat. Unfortunately, sacrifices will have to be made by all of the parties concerned, not just those least able to afford it. The too-small-to-save individuals and businesses have been left out of the bailout party, and they have suffered greatly during the current credit bust. Now, Spain, Italy and the rest of the economic basket-cases are approaching the moment when bailing them out will not be possible. Danielle Park believes cooler heads will prevail and accommodations will be made accordingly. FSN would like to believe that sanity will rule, but after four years of complete economic insanity, it's hard to accept. What's your opinion? Please let us know.

"Ranting" Andy is getting fed up with the news because it is pure propaganda. All talk of recovery is unadulterated BS, as is the belief that it's normal for gold prices to be headed down. The western world is having a complete financial hemorrhage, and it shows the world has lost its collective sanity, as if it ever had any in the first place. But at least we can still relish in the simple pleasures of life, like going to a Mets game at the new stadium, going to family get togethers on the holidays, or just enjoying a nice day and dusting off our gold and silver. Ah the little things that will once again mean the world to all us. Once again "Ranting" Andy is ahead of the pack.

Shawn Perger is from Vancouver Canada, and he has been involved with the mining industry his entire life. Canadians are much more in tune with the need for resources and the positive effect that such development has on economic activity. While he is certain that eventually gold and silver will reclaim their rightful place as real money, he also believes the efforts to save the existing fiat currency paradigm will stop at nothing to keep the system from imploding. Unfortunately, we are in a very perilous time for investors, and their unwillingness to accept the underlying reasons for monetary instability could be their undoing. As we've said numerous times before, no one can predict the exact moment of the global economic reboot, but it is certainly headed our way.

Yesterday I got to spend the day with Jay Taylor, a fellow radio guy, who's sites include www.MiningStocks.com and www.JayTaylorMedia.com. Jay's a former financial guy, who used to write a small newsletter as a hobby. Eventually, his hobby became his passion and he started writing full time and doing radio. He's as passionate as yours' truly and honest and completely authentic, which is why we hold him in such high esteem as the Financial Survival Network. We went to a Yukon Mining Presentation and there were a number of good companies presenting. This sector, is the casualty of the gold and silver manipulation scheme. Many of them are worth more dead than alive. But more importantly, the fund managers present had absolutely no concept of what's going to hit the US and World economies shortly. And that was truly alarming.

I bumped into an old friend the other day. Rick Freeman has always been an employee. Recently he became an entrepreneur and he's helping people who either don't have a banking relationship or refuse to have one. He cashes paychecks and provides a number of services to this group who don't have the benefit of a bank holding their money. Years ago, we used to make fun of people who distrusted banks and held their funds in the "mattress." Now adays, after the most recent financial crack-up, a large segment of the population has lost faith in the banking sector. While these parasitic institutions have taken trillions in government bailouts, they continue to milk their clients for every possible cent in fee income. It is this constant nickle and diming that has made the public extremely angry and resentful towards these crony capitlists. And it's why Rick's business is starting to take off

Chris Duane, the Silver Shield, joins us to discuss the unsustainable global economic system and the advent of the big break. Chris is very much in the silver market, and he, along with many others, feels the anxitey and tension building. Rumors of big silver orders being placed are running rampant, and according to Chris, the end of this summer seems like the most probable time for the big market break to happen. Chris knows this is the time to buy, and he has been frequently buying over the last week in a half, picking up all the bottoms as they've come aalong.

Dana Meador is back with FSN today to discuss why your bank is insolvent and what the issue of collateral means in this day-and-age. With JP Morgan front and center of the economic meltdown, you should be aware that the little JP blowup is indicative of a much bigger problem that a lot of people are not aware of. If you are not aware, cash is the new bubble; it is where everybody has parked their money. What are the banks doing with the cash sitting in accounts everywhere?

Ty Andros and I are doing the wrap a little earlier this week. Greece is playing chicken with a loaded gun to their heads. Spain's regulatory bankruptcy becomes more and more apparent. Their losses have doubled in the past two weeks, and they continue to escalate. Their banks have undergone multiple bank runs, which have of course been papererd over. Hollande, France's new socialist leader is attempting to get Euro Bonds to forestall the eventual day of reckoning and to continue to shift the obligations of today onto the generations of tomorrow, who will not pay the debts incurred anyway. The powers that be and the radical socialists that are running most of the governments around the world are in complete denial and will further diminsh the private sector and lead the world to bankrupty. Political solutions that don't address the underlying issue of a population that expects something for nothing, will accomplish nothing.

Trevor Bradley of Georgetown Trust joined us to discuss the worldwide move to internationalize assets in an effort to protect wealth from governmental confiscation. While moving assets overseas is still legal in the US, many laws have been passed to restrict and make the process more difficult. Now, Europeans in France, the UK, Greece, Spain and many others are moving assets away from their home countries in record numbers. Treavor explains how easy the process still is and why you need to get the guidance and legal assistance to be absolutely certain that you're in compliance with the laws and rules of your home country. While internationalization isn't for everyone, it can be a vital part of your retirement planning, especially if you're planning to move overseas.

Dave Banister joins us today for an interesting chat regarding just how fast the global economy is crumbling. We talk about wave cycles and patterns and how you can figure out exactly where you fit into these current cycles and patterns. There are no signs of an economic recovery in sight. The true unemployment rate has gone done, while the food stamp and disability rates continue to climb. As the unemployment numbers have been quoted as decreasing, the realistic reason for what's happening here is people are falling off the labor force. This decline has been matched by increasing claims for disability, and the trends are alarming. If you look at the charts for disability claims relative to history, there's quite an alarming uptrend in the last three or so years.

While Dave and I discuss how the economy is getting worse, we also note that the fundamentals for gold are not getting worse; we know they are getting better. What we're seeing in the gold market is a lot of paper trading along with a human, behavioral response to a prior huge gold cycle. Over 34 months, gold went from $680 an ounce to $1900 an once, and last fall, gold reached a parabolic peak. So what we're seeing now is the corrective cycle of the price of gold, and the next couple months will mark the tail end of the corrective cycle.

Peter Grandich, well known mining stock investor, is having some bad days. The price of gold and the stocks are under attack with no let up in sight. What seemed like major bargains a few weeks ago, now seem like the buys of a lifetime. No one knows where the price of gold and silver will wind up, however, what we do know is that none of the fundamentals have changed. Governments are still behaving irresponsibly, spending way more money than they have, and printing more and more dollars out of thin air. Unemployment is up, food stamps are up, and lots of other disheartening news is on the horizon. Add to this, the weakened state of the world's major banks, and you have a prescription for political and financial chaos which will eventually boost the prices of gold and silver dramatically. So understand that the elitists are playing upon your fear, trying to get you to do the wrong thing. Peter and the Financial Survival Network are all about trying to get you to do the right thing.

Dr. Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Institute joins us once again for an update on the latest European elections, the assault on private equity firms, private enterprise, and much more. We discussed movies about capitalism, Other People's Money and Head Office. Yaron also taked a bit about environmentalism, which he believes is often anti-humanistic and usually opposes beneficial human technological developments. The problem with today's socialists is they really don't care about people or their happiness.

In the good old days socialists believed in the common good and the individual's desire to attain happiness. That's why we saw Francois Mitterand, an avowed socialist, wind up embracing capitalism after he saw his collectivist agenda steer France over the cliff. Today's collectivists care nothing about the individual. They are nihilists who revel in their own power over others and simply view the populace or the electorate as a means to that end. Unfortunately, the electorate keeps falling for it over and over again. However, there is hope because the latest round of socialists will fail just like all their predecessors and once again, free market capitalism will rise.

The Silver Futurist, someone who we met at Hard Assets NY, and his lovely companion Jackie "O" appeared live today on our radio show on 1490WGCH in Greenwich, CT. We talked extensively about using new media to reach people who wouldn't ordinarily be concerned about such lofty matters. His YouTube channel has gotten over 2.5 million views, and it's growing every month. We also talked about money: what it is, and what's happening to it, as well as the best way to acquire metals. We hope you find their take on things as interesting as we did.

"Ranting" Andy Hoffman joins us for another fun filled wrap up of all the wonderful things that aren't happening in the world. He sees Facebook as further confirmation of a completely corrupt financial system careening out of control. When the elites deliberately overprice and overhype the biggest tech IPO in history and then see it crash and burn, then you know something important is happening. Combine that with the obvious rise in nationalism across Europe and you know the seeds have been sewn for something truly cataclysmic. With flocks of "black swans" circling the world's financial centers, waiting to descend at the exact worst moment, it's time to buckle our seat belts and get ready. It's important to understand the crisis, which began in late 2007, has not ended. It was perhaps dormant for a couple of years, but it has reared its ugly head and once it takes its course, nothing will be the same, except "Ranting" Andy that is.

Last week, I attended the NY Hard Assets Investment Conference. I had a booth and was so gratified that so many of you joined me. It was great meeting you and hearing your stories. It really made me understand that we're in this thing together and that we, as a community, will come through it together. That's exactly what FSN has become, a community of like minded people, sharing thoughts and ideas and making it through the Greater Depression together. Speaking of the "D" word, it's always about repudiation of debt and I present a simple plan for making the world right once again. It encompasses breaking up the "Too Big To Fail Banks," eliminating most of the world's debt and government interventions, and letting the market make us all great once again. But, I am a realist, and I know the forces that be will fight this every step of the way. However, certain things are inevitable, and the debt will eventually be repudiated and swept away.

Gordon Long is an engineer, and he has had a long career with larger Fortune 500 companies. He's also had the opportunity to do a startup and run his own company, from the ground up. He's an expert in chaos theory and a definite believer in tipping points. He's quite certain the current economic numbers are faked. Inflation is far greater than admitted to by the government. Accordingly, GDP is way, way overstated, using a hither to unknown method known as "Imputation." While the government is out there cooking the books, economic activity is actually declining, and the middle class is in danger of extinction. Irrespective of what GDP is stated to be, the underlying truth cannot be denied, the crisis continues in full force and effect.

If you're a person that doesn't really understand what's going on, but what you see of the current global financial world, like the first ever Japanese pension fund investing in gold, makes you fearful of your own financial survival, listen up! Andy and I touch base again this week and break down the implosion occurring in Greece. We suggest you keep your eyes on that Greece thing! Although the powers that be, aka the Elites, have done everything to make you believe what's going on with Greece is not a big deal, it is undoubtedly a foreshadowing to global calamity.

Greece is huge deal & it's coming to the forefront right now. This week it was announced the ECB is starting to cut off some of the Greek banks. This is a precursor to the inevitable, which is Greece succeeding from the Euro currency. This will not be a simple event, and it will result in reneging on hundreds of billions of debt; it will cause hyperinflation and bank runs across Europe then it will move up the totem pole to Great Britain, Japan and the US. This will cause people across the world to really question what debt means and if you can renege on it.

Protect yourself with the basics of wealth, which are real physical precious metals!

Dan Collins has been living in China for the past 15 years; he started as an exchange student, but he never left. Dan has worked for a number of large corporations there, at one point as a high level executive for GM China. With this unique perspective, he believes China is in a controlled slowdown, and the government will effectively manage the decline and keep the country crash free and growing for many years. Of course with Europe imploding (China's largest customer) and many other ominous clouds on the horizon, it's really impossible to know. But one thing is for certain, if you want to get rich in China, you need to be a high level communist party member. Many of them are billionaires, but there are a lot of other wealthy people in this emerging super power, and they want what we in the United States have taken for granted for many years. Unlike the emerging and growing underclass in the United States, they're willing to work for it. So if you want to know about China, then you need to hear from Dan, someone who's right in the thick of things. Find out more about his work at www.TheChinaMoneyReport.com.

Joe aka SilverFuturist has been a prolific YouTube contributor, posting hundreds of videos on our corrupt monetary and economic system. He takes a subject that many find difficult to understand, let alone explain, and makes it very simple. He does this by avoiding labels, such as Austrian School of Economics, and focuses mainly on causes and effects. Once people understand exactly what's happening to the economy, their money, and their wealth, things are never quite the same. There are many paths to economic enlightenment, and we must pursue everyone to help as many people as possible to understand and accept what is happening.

Ron Hera delivers a stinging rebuke to the economic boosters who claim the recovery is well under way and there's no need to worry about anything and the last thing you need is gold and silver. When educational loans are factored out, food stamp recipients are up, and debt is actually down. In the past decade, the Dow hasn't had any growth, and when you factor in taxes and inflation, it has actually gone down. Of course gold and silver are the best protection for wealth and these commodities always have been. With the fear of inflation always present, resource based investing is probably a wise move. It provides leverage and the potential to provide a hedge against rising prices. Many of the companies that Ron has recommended in the past have worked out extremely well.

As a regular listener to FSN, you know we are extremely interested in seeing the US tap into and exploit its vast natural resources. Recent advances in hydro-fracking technology have led to massive increases in domestic energy production, but they have also caused numerous environmental debates. Finally last week, the Federal Government handed down its much dreaded rules on the practice, which were surprisingly mild and uncontroversial.

At the Hard Assets NY Conference I was able to get a round table together with our regular guest the Mercenary Geologist, Mickey Fulp, Marin Katusa, Casey Research's resident energy guru, and Keith Schaefer, a noted authority on the Energy Sector and the editor and publisher of Oil and Gas Investments Bulletin. Together, they all agreed that even Uncle Sam can't and won't stop the energy industry from Fracking. There's no end in sight to the revolution because there are thousands of wells that have been drilled but aren't in production due to the depressed natural gas prices. It amounts to what some would call a free market in energy, and this is perhaps is the biggest shock of all.

There's great information here that can't be found elsewhere. We're glad to pass it along to you.